Greetings Exceptional Educators - and a warm welcome to LionHeart Blog-ucation! I am excited to share my ideas, thoughts, and reflections with you here as I work with and learn alongside many schools across our great nation. Tune in periodically to read about my latest experiences with educators like you who have the child’s best interest at the center of all they do. But first of all I would like to share how I came up with the name of my consulting business, LionHeart Consulting. The lion has been used over and over again in many organizations – from fables, to novels, to movies, to religion, to fitness and sports, to restaurants; the list goes on and on. And while I prefer to be a little different, the lion has always been an important symbol of courage and creativity for me, so it only felt natural to make it the symbol for my work with teachers and children. Since my childhood the lion has always been my favorite animal – perhaps it is because I was born in the summer month of August and, like my mom, I am a Leo. My mom was an artist, and my father, a physician and musician – so growing up music, science, and art was all around me every day. I never awoke to a new day or went to sleep without hearing the beautiful piano playing of my father, or witnessing the latest and greatest painting or art endeavor of my mother. “Look at the colors in the sky!”, my mom would say to me. “Most people would just call it blue, but if you look carefully, you’ll see purple, indigo, and a hint of green, pink, and orange. See it? Open your eyes and heart and the colors will flood into your being. That’s what being an artist is all about.” “Susie”, my dad would call me, “Let’s practice and get ready for your piano recital. It’s okay if you make a mistake – just enjoy the music you and the piano will create together. Your warmth and loving tone will be felt by all who listen.” My father gave me courage to play & share music with others, and my mother gave me creativity and skills to be an artist. I was lucky. I believe there is an “artist” in all of us, regardless of what others told us as we were growing up. That “artist” may or may not be in the traditional sense of the word – it may be as an athlete, as a sports enthusiast, as an organizer, a naturalist, a caretaker, a writer, a scientist, a dreamer. Whatever your “inner artist” is, my goal is to help you rediscover that, and bring it into your everyday teaching. While I incorporated the traditional arts – music, painting, dance, drama - into all my every day teaching with children, you can and should incorporate your passion into your classrooms, thus inspiring your students in a way that no other teacher can. Believe in yourself – and I encourage you to try one new thing in your teaching today. Open your hearts and mind to all that is around you. It’s okay if you make a mistake – because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. Your students are lucky to have you!!